The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the 21st century.

Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative

There is a paradox. As children, most of us think we are highly creative; as adults many of us think we are not. What changes as children grow up? Organizations across the globe are competing in a world that is changing faster than ever. They say they need people who can think creatively, who are flexible and quick to adapt.

Everyone knows that regular exercise and weight training lead to physical strength. But how do we strengthen ourselves mentally for the truly tough times? And what should we do when we face these challenges? Or as psychotherapist Amy Morin asks, what should we avoid when we encounter adversity? Through her years counseling others and her own experiences navigating personal loss, Morin realized it is often the habits we cannot break that are holding us back from true success and happiness.

Ken Robinson is one of the world's most influential voices in education, and his 2006 TED Talk on the subject is the most viewed in the organization's history. Now, the internationally recognized leader on creativity and human potential focuses on one of the most critical issues of our time: how to transform the nation's troubled educational system.

How Will You Measure Your Life?

In 2010 world-renowned innovation expert Clayton M. Christensen gave a powerful speech to the Harvard Business School's graduating class. Drawing upon his business research, he offered a series of guidelines for finding meaning and happiness in life. He used examples from his own experiences to explain how high achievers can all too often fall into traps that lead to unhappiness. Full of inspiration and wisdom, this book will help students, midcareer professionals, and parents alike forge their own paths to fulfillment.

Emotional Intelligence

Is IQ destiny? Not nearly as much as we think. This fascinating and persuasive program argues that our view of human intelligence is far too narrow, ignoring a crucial range of abilities - emotional intelligence - that matter immensely in terms of how we do in life.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living: Time-Tested Methods for Conquering Worry

Through Dale Carnegie's seven-million-copy best seller, recently revised, millions of people have been helped to overcome the worry habit. Dale Carnegie offers a set of practical formulas you can put to work today, formulas that will last a lifetime!

Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World

In this groundbreaking book, education expert Tony Wagner provides a powerful rationale for developing an innovation-driven economy. He explores what parents, teachers, and employers must do to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators.

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

In this must-listen book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, students, and businesspeople - both seasoned and new - that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit". Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success.

The Universe Has Your Back: Transform Fear into Faith

In her latest book, The Universe Has Your Back, New York Times best-selling author Gabrielle Bernstein teaches listeners how to transform their fear into faith in order to live a divinely guided life. Each story and lesson in the book guides listeners to release the blocks to what they most long for: happiness, security, and clear direction. The lessons help listeners relinquish the need to control so they can relax into a sense of certainty and freedom.

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

In this book Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create lives that are both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of whom or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.

Born for This: How to Find the Work You Were Meant to Do

Chris Guillebeau, the best-selling author of The $100 Start Up, has created a practical, actionable guide that can help you turn your passion into paychecks - whether within a traditional company or business, or by striking out on your own.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset is one of those rare audio books that can help you make positive changes in your life and at the same time see the world in a new way. A leading expert in motivation and personality psychology, Carol Dweck has discovered in more than 20 years of research that our mindset is not a minor personality quirk: it creates our whole mental world. It explains how we become optimistic or pessimistic. It shapes our goals, our attitude toward work, and ultimately predicts whether or not we will fulfull our potential.

Pre-Suasion: Channeling Attention for Change

The author of the legendary best seller Influence, social psychologist Robert Cialdini, shines a light on effective persuasion and reveals that the secret doesn't lie in the message itself but in the key moment before that message is delivered.

Following Through: A Revolutionary New Model for Finishing Whatever You Start

First published in 1998, Following Through shines a spotlight into the black hole in inner space where good intentions disappear. It reveals the startling reason why we so often fail to make the life-improving changes we truly intend to make.

Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature to Create the Life You Want

Many people feel called to help others and change the world, but they just don’t know how to fulfill their potential. They have the creativity and passion, but often get lost, not knowing how to direct their energies. Now, popular life coach Martha Beck shows how readers can find their calling in service and healing - while realizing their destiny. With a sparkling, compassionate, and often irreverent style, Beck draws from a combination of ancient wisdom and modern science to help readers consciously embrace vital skills that may be embedded in our DNA and are now made accessible again.

Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation's most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals, he again addresses the challenge of improving the world but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?

Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

Combining cutting-edge research with practical findings, Focus delves into the science of attention in all its varieties, presenting a long overdue discussion of this little-noticed and under-rated mental asset. In an era of unstoppable distractions, Goleman persuasively argues that now more than ever we must learn to sharpen focus if we are to survive in a complex world.

Publisher's Summary

Sir Ken Robinson's groundbreaking book The Element introduced listeners to a new concept of self-fulfillment through the convergence of natural talents and personal passions. The Element has inspired people all over the world and has created for Robinson an intensely devoted following. Now comes the long-awaited companion, the practical guide that helps people find their own Element. Among the questions that this new book answers are:

How do I find out what my talents and passions are?

What if I love something I'm not good at?

What if I'm good at something I don't love?

What if I can't make a living from my Element?

How do I do help my children find their Element?

Finding Your Element comes at a critical time, as concerns about the economy, education, and the environment continue to grow. The need to connect to our personal talents and passions has never been greater. As Robinson writes in his introduction, wherever you are, whatever you do, and no matter how old you are, if you're searching for your Element, this book is for you.

Would you consider the audio edition of Finding Your Element to be better than the print version?

I'm not sure. This is the first time that I have felt the need for the printed version. Unfornately, as of date, the book is only available in hard back.

What other book might you compare Finding Your Element to and why?

This book has many parallels to many spiritual teachings, from which the author occasionally quotes, but it is your choice as to whether you see finding your element a spiritual jouney or merely a way of finding the right career path for yourself or a child.

Which scene was your favorite?

All the exercises are valuable tools and I loved the personal stories of how some people found their element.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

What makes you happy? When are you at your happiest. This would have been suprisingly difficult to answer before completing just three of the exercises - now it just seems so obvious!

Any additional comments?

If you are like me, you are an audible subscriber because you prefer to listen to books whilst you are on the move. With this book however, if you really want to Find Your Element, you are going to have to sit down to listen and have certain tools available ( the author suggests these at the begining of the book) Because of this I went to buy the printed copy but I didn't like the hardback version as it can't be manipluated in the same way as a paper back. So it is a little frustrating to listen to questions asked and to do the exercises given whilst constantly pausing and rewinding. That said - that is what I am prepared to do as, having only completed three of the ten exercises I can already see a pattern and have noticed a shift in my behaviour as a result! Inpatient as I am, I listen to the book on the move and then when I come home, and I have time alone UNDISTURBED! (that is essential), I re-listen to the chapters and do the exersises.

My Headline stated that this book involved some work - that may just be me!. My personality type does not predispose me to sitting down with, pens, paper, coloured pens, vision boards etc.. but I strongly believe that the outcome will be worth that extra effort. No doubt, some people will not find this 'work' at all :-D

If you could sum up Finding Your Element in three words, what would they be?

Paramount Forward Thinking

What was one of the most memorable moments of Finding Your Element?

On how we absolutely need to change the way we teach and direct our kids. They are all full of greatness and we are trusting in a broken system to enhance their lives. People are more complex than a simple industrial school system. We are not even getting close to tapping their true potential.

Have you listened to any of Ken Robinson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, this does not fall short. He does a great job of presenting his thoughts.

What’s an idea from the book that you will remember?

their are more to us and we need to be more responsible to help pull out the greatness in our kids and truly help them on their journey to find their element.

Any additional comments?

Great thought provoking book. Ken Richards really pushes some hot buttons that make you think.

I picked up this title to see if it would be good for my niece who is entering her final year of high school and is finding the prospect of the future vague. Although Ken tells you out front that reading the book won't necessarily give you a clear vision he takes you through some exercises that help you explore yourself in his uniquely inspiring way. Although I listened to this book through Audible I'd recommend having a hard copy so that you can easily reference the exercises.

This book was actually recommended to me and although not even in my interests I found this book remarkable and eye opening. I intend listening to again to cover what I may have missed. Well worth the credit or purchase

What did you like best about Finding Your Element? What did you like least?

This book may be a good match for a young person trying to find his or her way in life. As a midlife career-changer, however, I find the advice trivial and obvious, and the exercises childish. I gave up cutting things out of magazines & pasting them into collages around about the age of 10.

Great book, but helps to have a pen handy. Also, try to listen to at home because of the written work recommended at the end of each chapter. I listened while driving and couldn't write down some really good points. Loved the book!

I loved his delivery, the humour and the exercises . It's the audio book you listen to every year when planning your life ( assuming you plan yearly or even at all ) . I have found my element ! The dull aches are true indicators that you are off path . Thank you ken . If Ken read this book slower , I'm not sure I'd listen to any other audio book narrated by anyone else ! Bravo

If you read The Element and loved it, you have to listen to this audiobook. If you didn't read The Element, you will understand everything, but will be excited to read it after finishing this audiobook. I love how Ken Robinson's books and speeches have the amazing power of inspire, excite, empower and make us question ourselves and others. Listening to him narrate the book is the best of both worlds: of the speaker and of the writer. All of this is already capable of making you find your element, because every chapter is a trigger of thoughts and new conclusions. However, in addition to that, he brings us 15 interesting exercises that will probably make you find your element if you need any help. Overall I really recommend it!